[BBLISA] Desktop policies and UNIX-ish operating systems

[Jurvis LaSalle]

On Jan 30, 2010, at 1:45 PM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:

>> Your past knowledge of other
>> unixes will help you just as much as your past knowledge of windows
>> systems,
>> when it comes to OSX.
> 
> I'll take that a step further.  When I was new to OSX, my past knowledge of
> unix/linux hurt me.  Because I expected things like ... the /etc/passwd file
> would actually be used for something.  

blame NeXT and NetInfo.  As stated previously, you can configure the box to use /etc/passwd, but there's no real need for it.

> And there must be some way to ssh
> into a remote machine and then run X11 remotely.

This has been possible for a very long time.  The Oroborus guys got a working X11 environment back in the 10.2 time frame.  Apple has been offering an X11 package on the install discs since 10.4 (and no, you don't have to reinstall the whole OS just to add that package).

>  And you should be able to
> configure network settings by editing a file somewhere.

*sigh*  this would be nice.  networksetup and scutil with their --longoptions are pretty tedious.

>  All false...  

ahem.  perhaps you should do some more research before issuing these bold proclamations.